


Pride

by funnygirlthatbelle13



Series: Not-So Deadly Sins [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Asexuality, Coming Out, Gen, Iron dad and Spider son, LGBTQ Themes, MJ is Pansexual, Many People are Not Straight, Peter Parker is Asexual, Peter Parker is Biromantic, They Talk About Sex Stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-20 20:28:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14901441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/funnygirlthatbelle13/pseuds/funnygirlthatbelle13
Summary: It took Peter a long time to figure out who he was. And he's proud to be asexual biromantic. But that doesn't mean it's any easier to come out. Especially when you're coming out to your hero.





	Pride

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, everybody! So, it's Pride Month, so I thought up a little something involving Peter as a member of the LGBT community. Most of this stuff is coming from personal experience and talking to other people about their journeys. Obviously, everyone's is vastly different, but I think I did a decent job making Peter's journey understandable. Enjoy!

In middle school, one of Peter's teachers had referred to him as the absent-minded professor: academically brilliant but not socially skilled. Tony Stark had once said that there was so much brilliance packed into his brain that Peter had no room for common sense in his head. So really, it shouldn't be too surprising that it took years for Peter to realize that he was... different.

He did not notice, for instance, that none of the other boys in his preschool liked to watch his worn-down VHS tapes of _Kiss Me Kate, Annie Get Your Gun,_ and _Seven Brides for Seven Brothers_. His mother would joke that he liked blonde ladies who could sing, but Peter was too enraptured by Howard Keel's charm and voice to even notice the leading ladies. Nor did he notice, at age seven, that all the girls at school wanted to play with him, but not the other boys. He was just happy to have friends, even if they sometimes tested him for cooties before letting him play four-square. He certainly hadn't noticed the vastly different reaction he gave during his first sex ed class in sixth grade compared to his classmates. Some were excited. Most were grossed out. Peter was bored at the lack of science experiments. He had, to his credit, noticed a huge difference between himself and Ned when they first marathoned the  _Star Wars_ movies together at the beginning of their freshmen year. Ned really like the bikini scene in  _Return of the Jedi_. Peter was more focused on when he could next see Luke use his new lightsaber. 

As that first year of high school continued, Peter began to notice more and more that he had no idea what his classmates talking about. Like, he understood, but not really. What made Thor hot but not Hawkeye? Why would you need to masturbate, like at all, but especially when your parents are home? Why did the guys look up so much porn? Why would anyone put a penis in their mouth? No matter how much research Peter did, he couldn't figure this sex thing out.

But eventually, he figured it all out. He wasn't broken; the spider bite hadn't changed the way he felt, so he knew that. He was asexual biromantic. It felt so good to have words to explain this huge part of his identity. It was like when he'd finally come up with the name Spider-man; it made everything so much more real. But now, he had to figure out how to talk about these real feelings with real people in real life. 

He had first told Ned, because really, who else would he tell? There had been a few more  _Little Shop of Horrors_ jokes than Peter had hoped for, but his best friend accepted him. MJ had found out next, though she claimed she'd known for ages. They had been talking about Freddie Mercury being bisexual and, in the process, outed themselves to each other. It felt great to have another person like him to talk to, even if their orientations were different (MJ was pansexual). 

One day, pre-bite, Peter had been home sick with the flu. He could barely move, so he ended up watching hours and hours of crime shows. Peter couldn't remember a single thing about any of those shows except for one line about secrets: "If you have a secret, the best thing is to keep it to yourself. The second-best is to tell one other person if you must. There is no third-best." So he knew that, with two other people knowing his secret, it'd come out eventually. He didn't mind. He was proud to be in the LGBT community. And, for the most part, people were handling it well. There were just some people who he didn't want knowing just yet. Obviously, the longer he could keep Flash out of the loop, the better, but there were two important people in his life Peter was hesitant to come out to: May and Tony.

In his defense, May was the first person he tried to talk to about his sexuality. He'd asked her about attraction and why he felt like he was missing something all the other kids had. 

"You're just a late bloomer," she had assured him, "No need to get so worried."

Peter knew she didn't mean anything by it, but the way she had acted had hurt him. Just the concept of him being different was shocking and painful to her. He knew she'd come around eventually, but they weren't going to have that talk anytime soon. 

Mr. Stark, on the other hand, he wasn't sure he'd ever tell. He had no concept of how he'd handle the information. Despite his best efforts, Peter had no evidence either way what Tony's stance on the LGBT community was. There were no interviews where he talked about it, good or bad. Other than some crazy conspiracy theories, there was no evidence that Tony had so much as shaken hands with someone who was out of the closet (There was a picture with Ellen, but Peter couldn't figure out how old it was). And when he brought up anything remotely gay, Tony would just change the subject as soon as possible. 

So, though Peter didn't want to keep secrets from his mentor, he had lied to him about where he was going to be one Saturday in June. In his defense, it wasn't a  _total_ lie. If the protesters got violent, Spider-Man would intervene. But, for now, he wasn't Spider-Man looking for a riot in a supersuit. He was Peter, celebrating pride in a gloriously glittery outfit that MJ had helped him design and make. Half of his face was painted with the bisexual flag, the other in the asexual flag (both glittery, of course). The shirt he wore was tie-dyed the bi colors, but the tutu and shorts were all ace. He hadn't been sure about the tutu part, but MJ's partner, Val, had insisted it was a Look™. They had better fashion sense than Peter ever would, so he trusted them. 

Pride was wonderful, more wonderful than he'd ever imagined. That's why he was barely successful at not being devastated when his phone began to ring. 

"Hello?" he shouted over the Lady Gaga music. 

"Peter," it was Mr. Stark, "Get your ass to the Hudson; we've got a mutated radioactive crab issue and-"

"Got it, sir," he said, hanging up. MJ and Val stared at him.

"Gotta go," he said sadly, "Mr. Stark needs me."

"Man, that sucks," MJ said.

"Yeah, major bummer," Val agreed, "Hey, since you're not gonna use them, can I have those condoms?"

It took Peter much longer than he had wanted to get to the fight. This was made only more frustrating by War Machine, Black Widow, and Vision beating him there, on top of Iron Man being there. 

"Glad you could make it, kid," Stark said to him.

"Hey," Rhodey greeted pleasantly. They had hung out a few times before (some as Peter, some as Spider-Man, but the man had put two and two together), and Peter found the Colonel to be a pretty cool guy.

"Hey, everybody," Peter greeted enthusiastically, "Good to see you again, Mr. Vision, Ms. Romanoff. I-"

"Listen," Tony interrupted his ramblings, "These shells are hard as hell. Our best chance is gonna be to shoot this thing in the belly. But we need to disable the claws first."

"You want me to web the claws closed?"

"That's exactly what I want, kid."

"No problem, Mr. Stark!"

And, at first, there was no problem. Vision helped by moving objects for him to web between while Romanoff tried to get a shot at the creature's belly, all the while the two suits were trying to keep the crab distracted. Things were going great until Peter broke into a sweat. 

"Karen, what's in my eyes?" he asked his AI, trying to blink away the obstruction. 

"Glitter from your makeup," she informed him, "You'll need to flush it out."

"Okay, Karen, thanks."

"Permanent retina damage may occur if-"

But Peter wasn't paying any attention. Through swimming eyes, he saw his shot. Swinging forward, he shot a web at the claw and-"

"Welcome back, kid," Rhodey's familiar voice greeted. Peter fought through the fog in his brain to try and bring himself back to reality. His eyes fluttered open, and Karen was not there. His mask. 

"Don't worry," Romanoff's voice said from the distance, "No one off the team saw your face."

Good. His secret identity was safe. Wait. The makeup. He reached a hand to his face. The makeup was gone. 

"What the hell happened?" he asked, trying to stifle his panic and his tears. 

"You're in the med-bay upstate," Rhodey began, "You broke some ribs and-"

"What happened? Where's Mr. Stark?"

"I believe he's on the phone with your aunt," Vision informed him. 

Oh god. Oh god. Everyone knows. Aunt May. Mr. Stark. The Avengers. Vision must have sensed his panic, because he continued to speak.

"Agent Romanoff, perhaps we should go find him."

The two of them left, leaving Peter alone in the med-bay with Rhodey. Now that there weren't so many people around, he could see just how white the place was. It looked like a toothpaste commercial. The colonel sighed and sat back in his chair, so calm and peaceful looking, like everything was okay. Meanwhile, Peter ached with every fiber of his being, but the emotional pain he was going through was somehow much, much worse. 

"You got crushed in the claws," Rhodey informed him, interrupting his panic, "You stopped breathing at one point. Tony had to do CPR."

So Mr. Stark definitely saw the makeup. Oh god.

"We thought we lost you for a second there, kid," he said softly, "What happened? Your aim's usually pretty good." 

Peter was saved from having to pretend to pass out to avoid the question by Tony's entrance.

"Hey, kiddo," he said. Peter saw his mentor's face, full of concern, his eyes red and puffy. Guilt and shame overwhelmed him at the sight. 

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you!" he cried out, tears welled up in his eyes. Tony stared at him, though it seemed to cause him pain. Rhodey quietly slipped out, allowing Tony to take his seat. Tony stared at him intently for what felt like a year before speaking. 

"What didn't you tell me, Peter?"

It wasn't angry, but his voice wasn't exactly gentle, either. 

"About the makeup. About where I was and why I was there and-"

"Slow down. Take me with you."

And he did. He told him everything. How he'd figured everything out. How MJ had helped him learn all about Gay Culture™. How the two of them and Val had all gone to pride together for the first time. How the glitter had gotten in his eye. Everything. 

"Oh, Pete," Tony whispered when he'd finally finished talking, "Come here, buddy." 

Stunned, Peter sat up enough to be pulled into his mentor's embrace. 

"This doesn't change anything," Tony began to assure him, "As long as you're happy, you could be dating a graphing calculator, and I wouldn't care."

Peter didn't laugh; his emotions were still too raw. Tony pulled away.

"Was the calculator bit insensitive? Do you get a lot of robot-based insults?" Now Peter did laugh.

"Actually, it's usually plant stuff."

That made Tony laugh, which made Peter smile. 

"I had no idea you were so cool about this stuff, Mr. Stark."

Tony wasn't laughing now. 

"What the hell are you talking about, kid?" 

"Well, I mean, I did some research and I couldn't find-"

"My sex tapes, with men  _and_ women? My fighting against Don't Ask, Don't Tell? No, kid, my dad and old Obediah Stane always covered my tracks, made sure I looked like a party boy, a player, and nothing else. They could work with a rebel. They couldn't-the press would've-"

"You're," Peter stopped, choosing his next words carefully, "Like me?"

"Yeah, like you, kid. I'm bisexual."

At that point, Tony began to cry.

"God, I haven't said that out loud in years." 

It was Peter's turn to do the hugging now. He enveloped Tony in his arms as best he could without disturbing the machines attached to him.  They stayed like that, crying in each other's arms, for a long time.

"Maybe we can come out together?" Peter offered hopefully.

"I'm old, kiddo," Tony said with a humorless laugh and a squeeze into Peter's shoulder, "Too old for this."

"Oh, okay," Peter said, trying not to show his sadness at that thought, "Well, maybe you can come to pride with me and my friends next year?"

"I'd like that," Tony said with the most genuine smile Peter had ever seen on the man. "I'm proud of you."

They stared at each other, smiling through their tears for a moment before Tony clapped Peter on the back.

"Now get some rest."

Peter obediently nestled back into the bed. Tony watched, thinking back on another tear-filled day where he'd feared for Peter's life. 

_"I was just trying to be like you!"_

_"And I wanted you to be better."_

This was exactly the type of thing he had meant. Moments like these made him less worried for the future. If Peter was gonna be the one saving it, how bad could it be?


End file.
